What is the syncing it keeps mentioning? Has the problem come up because I have installed Vector Linux on a logical partition and not a primary partition? It only lists the logical partitions above, and no reference to the logical partitions where it has been installed.I tried replacing root= options with "root=/sda3", "root=/dev/sda3" and root="/dev/sda12", but it all gave the identical error.

During the installation, I chose the file system to be xfs. And, I rechecked the device where I installed the root partition of Vector Linux. It is /dev/sda12 (hence, I put hda12). When I mount this partition, I can see the Vector Linux files.For instance -

This is very weird. In total frustration, I re-tried the boot and everything worked perfectly till ...It now halts when it tries to start 'multi-level gui'. Is there any way I can change this setting to command line login? The multi-user gui never starts!

@ Windozer :There are no IDE drives on my computer. All are SATA.I also tried replacing root=/dev/hda12 with the following -(1) root=/dev/sda12(2) root=/dev/sda3(3) root=/dev/sda1(4) root=/sda12(5) root=/sda3Each time I had tried, I got the same error. I also tried not putting any value for root, but that (very obviously) failed!

@ Sparkyhall :I installed from the iso. I have the iso, but do not have the installation cd.

The steps were pretty simple. I reinstalled Vector Linux and chose the command line log-in. The reason why the log-in was failing was because of an empty xorg.conf file. I also saw the xorg.conf.back file, that looked more like the file I was looking for.

It's been a few days since I got VL up and running, and everything is going smoothly. However, I cannot understand why my laptop threw such a tantrum on the initial install! Why does it go into kernel panic? And why did it not detect my drives on the first install?

Also, there is one observation. The first time I installed VL-6.0-Light, I chose the 'multi-level gui'. However, this never started. I could never figure out why. It never gave me an option of selecting a text-based ui either. The only way I could get around this was to re-install the whole thing, and choose 'text-based' login. This time, I successfully reached the log-in page.

But, the excitement was not over as yet! I tried to 'startx', but in vain. It kept telling me that my xorg.conf file was not right. I checked the file to find it empty! However, there were some other file xorg.conf.back (back-up file?), which I copied to xorg.conf. Soon, all was working!

Is my case a one-off? Or is this a well-documented set of events in the installation? I am extremely happy with VL, but the installation made the distro seem rather omenous!